Things are looking up for everyone’s favorite orbital telescope.
On June 13, the Hubble Space Telescope’s on-board computer (aka payload computer) suddenly stopped working. After evaluating the situation from afar, NASA decided to move operations to a backup computer. After weeks of evaluations and tests, NASA successfully turned on the backup hardware, the
All of Hubble’s hardware entered a safe mode, so nothing has been damaged. The telescope has been capturing
NASA said this is just the start of getting Hubble totally back online. It will take at least a day to bring the telescope’s science instruments out of safe mode, and some additional calibration to get them fully working again.
While NASA hasn’t provided any estimates on how likely it is that the telescope will resume normal operations, the update on Friday is promising.
The initial issue was caused by the Power Control Unit, which ensures a steady supply of power to the payload computer,
Both the main computer and the backup computer were
Keep your fingers crossed for the Hubble Space Telescope, but rest assured knowing that if the full restoration fails, the even-more-powerful